Yamaha GL1 TBS Guitalele: A Premium Instrument from the GL Series

Edward pereira: Really lovely to play.
I tuned it to eadgbe tuning by using extra hard tension strings, works well.
Good for beginner's and small hands also.

India on Sep 27, 2023

D. Kirkwood: Yamaha always make great instruments. I’m sure people who play ukulele will love the extra range this gives them. I came at it from guitar playing. A capo on 5th fret gives same range but with more tonality. Don’t let my review put you off though, it is a great little instrument especially for ukulele players. We’ll worth the money if that’s your bag.

United Kingdom on Jul 16, 2023

Nino: Consiglio accordatura per guitalele adgcea perchè così si valorizza lo strumento. Rispetto alla accordatura di una chitarra normale , il guitalele si accorda alla quinta . In poche parole , per suonare un MI standard sul guitalele dovete mettere l'accordo SI. Se sul guitatele mettete un MI in realtà state eseguendo un La , perché Mi è la quinta di la. Per cui, per chi già suona la chitarra, non deve imparare nuovi accordi . Nota negativa è che per ora si scorda veramente facilmente. Io ho già 4 ukulele e questo veramente non tiene per ora. Ho comprato corde aquila red series e spero che tengano meglio. Il suono comunque è accattivante.

Italy on Mar 30, 2023

Jon: 69 year old guitar hack here. Played electric, and some acoustic guitar in three bands way back in the 1970's. Played acoustic at a wedding. My neighbor bought a Yamaha GL-1 "guitalele" A few years ago, and told me recently that he loves it! A GL-1 is basically a very compact 6 string classical guitar, but, instead of being tuned Eadgbe, it is tuned 5 frets up on each string, so the low and high e's become a's. This means that all the chord shapes I know on a regular guitar can be played in the same positions, but the name of the chord will be different. Example, an e major chord shape on a guitar, will really be an a major on the Yamaha. If I am just playing by myself for myself, there is no problem. If I was to play along with a regular guitar, we would have to work out what key to play in. Also, if I sing and play, then depending on what key I play in, I would have to sing in higher notes.

This thing came quicky to me in Hawaii, and it is in perfect condition! Since it had nylon/classical type strings, it is going to take much longer for the strings to settle down and stop sretching. Way longer than my steel stringers. So, don't write a review after a few days...

United States on Mar 09, 2023

Jordi: Buen sonido para el tamaño de la caja. Estaría bien que llevara roseta, sin ella parece que no está terminado. El principal problema es que los trastes son muy estrechos y si añadimos que las cuerdas están más tensadas que las de la guitarra sólo los acordes al aire suenan bien, Nada nuevo, el instrumento es así. Pero cuando hay que hacer acordes con cejilla los dedos apenas caben y debido a la tensión de las cuerdas, se hace un poco difícil de ejecutar, así que he optado por la afinació de la guitarra, y al aflojar las cuerdas, y con un poco de paciencia todo va saliendo más o menos bien. Quedo satisfecho por la compra, pero a tener en cuenta que es un instrumento para pasar un buen rato y no como un instrumento único, siempre es mejor una guitarra. Por el sonido que tiene, pacecido al del banjo, es muy apropiado para música country cuyas canciones en su mayoría tienen los acordes al aire y suenan muy bien. Jordi

Spain on Jan 29, 2023

Pilar FresPilar Fres: Edición de reseña casi un año después:
Sigo encantada con él. Descubrí al poco de empezar a aprender que era zurda para tocar guitarra (soy ambidiestra). Lo llevé a un luthier para que le cambiase la posición de los huesos donde van apoyadas las cuerdas. Casi me costó lo mismo que el guitalele, pero mereció la pena. Cuando le dije que era primeriza y que cuando había cogido antes una guitarra de algún amigo me dolían los dedos, también limó los huesos para que las cuerdas estuvieran más bajas. Si ya era blando de tocar, ahora es que ni me entero. Para empezar a hacer callo sin desanimarse, me parece perfecto. Y gastarme en total (entre cuerdas, funda nueva, servicio de luthier y el guitalele en sí) unos 200€ me parece razonable para un hobby en el que no te quieres dejar una barbaridad de dinero porque sabes que no vas a dedicarle una atención y una devoción inmensa. Cuando pueda, compraré una guitarra de más calidad y mayor tamaño. Pero esperaré a tener (dinero y) un repertorio de canciones que le pueda sacar partido. Para las aspiraciones que tengo ahora, sólo se me queda pequeño si son canciones que usan cejilla en cuarto traste en adelante. Porque...

Spain on Aug 29, 2022

Ralph Peterson: This guitalele has opened up a bit since I got it.

I started playing ukulele 2 years ago, and started learning guitar almost a year ago. After having Amazon cancel an order I placed on an acoustic guitar from the Amazon Warehouse. (Grr! Btw on that! I feel really cheated considering the same guitar turned up with a seller who refabs and resells damaged instruments, and I was extremely excited about it, until I got the message "they couldn't find it," last minute on delivery day!!! 😠 That's so wrong imo.) I chose this guitalele in it's stead however.

It has issues with frets not being cut long enough in spots but nothing that makes it unplayable. It's cosmetic for the most part. There's a few other purely cosmetic issues. Mine has a couple spots the factory missed applying the wood filler to, on the body to make it smooth. Theres a small spot on the bottom of the neck where the wood chipped before assembly and it wasn't filled with filler or even glue to fill the gap. It's a mass produced instrument at an affordable price. I was expecting small imperfections. The sloppy fret cutting job is the only kind-of annoying one to me. The one I have is actually a...

United States on Nov 09, 2020

DougDoug: I'm a 6-string (steel) acoustic fingerstyle/jazz player who was looking to goof around with something small and inexpensive. Wanted to leave a review for the like-minded, or everyone who actually wants to try digging some arpeggios and modes into one of these little things and playing some standards and fingerstyle tunes on a park bench or lawn chair. I've owned some nice instruments and play for hours a day, so the GL1 isn't my first rodeo.

First of all, the build quality is great. Importantly, the tuners are rock solid. Period. Intonation was surprisingly accurate for a $100 instrument - just a tiny, tiny bit sharp at the twelfth fret harmonic, but not noticeable when chording or playing melodies. The frets are perfect - no rough edges (see pictures). The instrument sounds clear and warm and lively. The strings it came with were fine - not rusty or anything - nice and shiny and obviously brand new.

The action out of the box (as pictures show) was pretty high. This is not a criticism of Yamaha or the shipper or anything - one usually has to set up one's own instruments. I'm not great at it, but I know the basics. I took the saddle out and sanded it way down and used...

United States on Nov 07, 2019